Privacy risks from geographic information

April 8, 2010

In today's world more geographic information is being collected about us, such as where we live, where the clinic we visited is located, and where we work. Web sites are also collecting more geographic information about their users. This location information makes it easier to identify individuals, which can raise privacy concerns when location is coupled with basic demographics and sensitive health information. Individuals living in small areas tend to be more easily identifiable because they are unique on their local demographics.

A new research study published online in the BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making journal measures how easy it is to determine the identity of individuals using their geographical information.

In the article titled A Method for managing Re-identification Risk form Small Geographic Areas in Canada, Prof. Khaled El Emam, Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information and lead author, explains that they have developed a new method for measuring the privacy risk for Canadians, in particular, those living in small geographic areas. This privacy risk measure can then be used to decide whether it is appropriate to release/share geographic information or not and what demographics to include with this geographic information. The article also presents a set of criteria and checklists for managing the privacy risks when releasing/sharing location information.

"What we have developed is an overall risk management approach to decide how best to protect people's privacy by taking into account their locations, the sensitivity of the data, and who they are sharing the data with," explains Dr. El Emam.

This study shows that by protecting only the individuals living in small geographic areas, as defined by the new measures, it is possible to share more information while still being able to manage privacy risks.

Related Stories

A recent study led by Dr. Khaled El Emam, the Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information at the CHEO Research Institute, found that the information in hospital prescription records can quite easily re-identify ...

The personal health and financial information stored in thousands of North American home computers may be vulnerable to theft through file-sharing software, according to a research study published online today in the Journal ...

Sites such as Wikimapia and OpenStreetMap are empowering citizens to create a global patchwork of geographic information while Google Earth is encouraging individuals to develop appplications using their own data.

As electronic health records become more widely deployed, increasing amounts of health information are being collected. This data has many beneficial applications, such as research, public health, and health system planning. ...

On the theory that a driver who knows when a red light will turn green is more relaxed and aware, vehicle manufacturer Audi is unveiling this week in Las Vegas a technology that enables vehicles to "read" traffic signals ...

There you are, cruising down the freeway, listening to some tunes and enjoying the view as your autonomous car zips and swerves through traffic. Then the fun ends and it becomes time take over the wheel. How smooth is that ...